I nodded. “I’m sure we can make an arrangement. But I need something concrete in return. How did you get the boys? How did it work? That’s what I need to hear from you.”

I waited for him to answer. Several minutes passed.

“I’ll tell you where Benjamin is,” he finally said.

“You’ll tell me that too.”

I waited some more. Took another turn outside with Charlie. Came back to the study.

“I bought the boys from the Wolf,” Potter finally said. “But you’ll be sorry you asked. So will I, probably. He’ll make both of us pay. In my humble opinion, and remember, this is just a college professor talking, the Wolf is the most dangerous man alive. He’s Russian. Red Mafiya.”

“Where do we find the Wolf?” I asked. “How do you contact him?”

“I don’t know where he is. Nobody does. He’s a mystery man. That’s his thing, his trademark. I think it turns him on.”

It took several more hours of talking, bargaining, and negotiating, but Potter finally told me some of what I wanted to know about the Wolf, this Russian mystery man who impressed him so. Late in the day, I wrote in my notes, This makes no sense yet. None of it does, really. The Wolf’s scheme seems insane. Is it?

Then I wrote my final thought, at least for the moment:

The brilliance of it may be that it makes no sense.

To us.

To me.

Part Four: INSIDE THE DEN

Part Four

INSIDE THE DEN

Chapter 78

Chapter 78

STACY POLLACK WAS a solemn and commanding presence in front of the roomful of agents gathered on the fifth floor of the Hoover Building. It was standing room only for her meeting. I was one of those standing in the back, but just about everybody knew who I was after our New Hampshire success bringing in Potter. We had rescued another captive—Francis Deegan was going to be fine. We’d also found the bodies of Benjamin Coffey and two other males, unidentified so far.

“Unaccustomed as I am to having things go our way,” Pollack began, and got a laugh, “I’ll take this latest development and offer humble thanks to the powers that be. This is a very good break for us. As many of you know, the Wolf has been a key target on our Red Mafiya list, probably the key target. He’s rumored to be into everything—weapon sales, extortion, sports fixing, prostitution, the white slave market. His name seems to be Pasha Sorokin and he seems to have learned his trade on the outskirts of Moscow. I say seems because nothing is a sure thing when it comes to this guy. Somehow he maneuvered his way into the KGB, where he lasted three years. He then became a pakhan, a boss, in the Russian underworld but decided to emigrate to America. Where he completely disappeared.